Beneath
by Sparky Lurkdragon
Summary: A Chozo Warrior searches through a ruined home, expecting to find nothing but death.


Happy Legal Stuff of Doom: Nothing in the Metroid series belongs to me. However, this particular vision of this particular event does, so unless you're from Nintendo or an affiliated company looking for plots, you can't have this without asking me. But if you do ask, I'll probably be more than happy to let you put this on your site. E-mail's in the profile.   
  
Review Note: Please, if you do review, tell me what you liked and what you didn't. And for the love of pie, please do not advertise yourself without first reviewing the content of my story.  
  
And now, with that out of the way...  
  
Sparky the Seventh Chaos presents:  
Beneath  
  
Shakrane pushed the wrecked door open as quietly as he could, not wanting to alarm whoever might be within. He and his people couldn't know if there were any left alive in the ruined human colony – after a Space Pirate attack, it seemed miserably unlikely. Still, their compassion compelled the Chozo to examine the wreckage. Any other help for the colony was too far away to rescue anyone trapped under the rubble in time.  
The house, like all the others, was a depressing, bloody mess. Shakrane stood at the door for a moment and looked around, 'frowning' sadly. Still, perhaps there was someone left past the house's entryway, though the Chozo Warrior was growing more pessimistic about finding survivors with every house he searched through. Shakrane stepped inside and began investigating.  
The ground-level portion of the house was as depressing as all the others. Like in the other homes, anything the Space Pirates thought valuable had been taken, anything not valuable to them destroyed, including the unfortunate human family who had been living there. Not even a barely- hatched chick had been spared. Thinking he would find nothing but yet more destruction, Shakrane went down into their basement.  
It was cooler underground than above, and so Shakrane flicked a switch on his helmet to see in heat levels. To Shakrane's surprise, there was another source of heat in the room besides the water heater; it was shaped like a human. Perhaps, then, the discouraging searches that had come before this one had paid off.  
Shakrane turned his heat sensors off and walked to where the human- shaped source had been. He or she was hidden behind the wide supports of an almost cubic metal table. Shakrane spoke gently and quietly.  
"Hello? Are you under there?"  
Whoever was there didn't move or make any noise beyond a faint gasp. At least he had confirmed that he had found a survivor. Shakrane, continuing to talk quietly, began to pull the chair out. The wide table supports, combined with the equally thick chair's, had probably been what had saved the small creature from the Space Pirates' wrath.  
"Be still, Human... I am Shakrane of the Chozo. I am here to help you... do not be afraid... it will be all right... you are alive, and we Chozo can take care of you..."  
Shakrane finished moving the chair, revealing a terrified little human girl under the table. She cringed away from Shakrane as he knelt down to her level and looked her over, chittering something he couldn't make sense of. Apparently, she didn't have a translator on her; considering she was little more than a hatchling in human terms, that wasn't too surprising. The chick didn't look in particularly good condition, but nor would she die without immediate care. Shakrane put away the trigger to the gun mounted on top of his right arm and extended both of his hands to the hatchling. She cowered still further back, but the Chozo kept his hands where they were, palms up. In a few moments, he hoped, she would see that he meant her no harm, despite his undoubtedly imposing talon- hands.  
"Come now... see? I will not hurt you. Come here... come here, little one. I want to help you. You will be all right – just come here... come here..."  
Shakrane continued to talk softly at the human, eventually not really saying much of anything, only talking to her in a soothing tone. After a time, she slowly sat up and looked up at him, chittering something again, sounding somewhat less frightened. Shakrane gave a sad Chozo smile. "That's it. Do not be frightened. Come closer... ...poor little hatchling. You are an orphan, now, aren't you... we will care for you, though. We would be poor excuses for rescue workers if we did not expect to help any survivors..."  
The chick again chittered something, and crawled a small distance closer to Shakrane, seemingly a little calmer.  
"There... that's it... come on."  
The chick stayed where she was for a few moments, swaying slightly with indecision, and then abruptly jumped onto Shakrane, long arms around his neck. Shakrane stood, bringing one hand under her for support and gently holding the little human against him with the other. She whimpered a few more incomprehensible words out and tightened her grip on him. Shakrane slowly started making his way back up the stairs with the human chick in his arms. Just before they left the basement, the chick looked at the closed door for a second, and then attempted to bury her face in her rescuer's chest armor, making distressed-sounding noises. Shakrane gently moved his free hand from the middle of her back to over her head, talking softly to her again as he made his way back into the rest of the house, then out of the dead building and back to the safety of the Chozo space ship. 


End file.
